Sunkist Gems have been around for as long as I can remember. I have eaten them a bunch of times over the years, when I get that special craving for citrus gummi candies. One of the grocery stores that I used to frequent back East (I still love and miss you Wegmans!) had a large candy bin section, with a big barrel of individually wrapped Sunkist Gems. I’d go through and pick out the grapefruit and lemons ones for myself as a treat every so often. They’re so yummy! Jelly Belly PR recently contacted me asking if I’d like to try some samples for the blog. Being such a big fan of their products I said yes, not knowing what they’d be mailing me. Lo and behold, I had a bag of Sunkist Fruit Gems!
The gems are round discs, a little smaller than the size of a poker chip, and stand at about 1/4 inch tall. They’re colorful, but in a muted colored with fruit juice kind of way, and covered with a coating of granulated sugar.

The gems come in five flavors:

Orange: This flavor is really great. It has nice nice orangy flavor to it that’s zesty but sweet. It almost has a tangerine taste to it from the zest, but it’s smoother than that. The flavor comes across as very juicy and satisfying. Really yummy.

Lemon: This flavor is awesome. It’s tart, zesty and juicy. All that a lemon should be. The nuances in this reminds me of limoncello. Very flavorful and so delicious.

Grapefruit: I was looking forward to this one the most. This one is smooth, so smooth. The flavor is a bit more delicate than the lemon and orange, yet the flavor is that richness of grapefruit I expect and look forward to. It has a great, juicy taste that is both sweet and sour, with a hint of bitterness. Really yummy.

Raspberry: Raspberry is sweet and lightly floral. It has a nice juicy berry-ness to the flavor but it’s not very intense. Other than that it’s just sweet with no real defining notes.

Blueberry: Blueberry is sweet and has an perfumey flavor to it. I taste berries, but not specifically blueberries. Something about it is oddly “red” though, like hints of red licorice laces. It’s tasty ,and out of all the flavors in the bag I had the most of this one.
I do feel a little disappointed with the Raspberry and Blueberry flavors, not because I didn’t like how thy tasted, but more because I miss how these were a citrus fruit mix. The lime flavor got booted and these were added in. It does add more to the rainbow of colors. I shared these with my fiance and he just raved about them. Little did I know that these are a childhood favorite of his (I’ve never seen him by them himself) so he really enjoyed having these again. We both really enjoyed these and now that I know how much he loves them, I’ll be buying these more often!